Awfter Awll
by Hikari Amaya
Summary: Bakura is finally able to come out of the Millennium Ring after three thousand years of waiting. But this wasn't at all how he imagined his voice to sound. What he meant to say was 'after all', not 'awfter awll'. Short oneshot.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or anything related to it.

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There was a light in the dark. Bakura blinked, unsure of what he was seeing. Was it real? Or was it another trick? A dream, surely. He'd waited three-thousand years for this moment. But was it really happening? It seemed unreal.

The ring fell with comforting support around a young boy's neck. Bakura observed his new host. He was tall, thin as a rail, and pathetically scrawny. Bakura knew he'd have to do some work there; toughen him up, to say the least. In the matter of appearance, however, the tomb robber wasn't too disappointed; the boy looked very much like the evil spirit himself with thick tufts of long, snow-white hair and a sturdy frame.

The boy was hugging a blue-haired man wearing odd, dull brown clothes that looked tight and uncomfortable. "I'm glad you like it, Ryou," he was saying, and Bakura memorized that name; Ryou. It was the name of his vessel.

The man left Ryou alone in the room, closing the unusual portal that seemed to be the door, and Bakura decided it was time to reveal himself. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the dark of the ring and stood beside his host.

Bakura frowned slightly; he wasn't solid, as he had hoped, but a mere transparent image. Not only that, but he most resembled his new host rather than his old self. He was just as tall as he had been back in Egypt; taller than Ryou, in fact, but just as skinny as well with a ghostly pale complexion. He was also garbed in his hikari's clothing; a blue and white school uniform that was itchy and suffocating; Bakura had never worn so much clothes in his life. Feeling uncomfortable, he unbuttoned the coat.

His hair wasn't as wild as it had once been, but rather soft, like Ryou's. However, he admired the familiar spiky texture that his vessel didn't seem to have. Turning to face Ryou, he saw that the boy hadn't noticed him and was running his fingers over the ring's glossy surface.

Letting out a chorus of maniacal laughter, Bakura announced his presence. "At last, I'm finally free of that nettlesome ring! Now I -" Bakura suddenly stopped speaking. For a moment, he wasn't sure why. It wasn't because his hikari didn't seem to be listening; however, now that he noticed, he figured he would have to give Ryou his first punishment later on. And he certainly hadn't forgotten the speech he had prepared for the occasion; he had had three-thousand years to perfect it and now almost remembered it as much as his life back in Egypt. No, it had been his voice that stopped him dead in his tracks. Confused, the tomb robber put his hand to his mouth, massaging his jaw. What had _that_ been?

Bakura knew that when he finally used his voice after three-thousand years, it would be different than before. But it was much different than he had expected. It was gruffer, but that was to be expected after years of disuse. Still, there was something else that Bakura hadn't planned for and was completely baffled by. Hoping it was just something that happened whenever one spoke after not doing so for years, Bakura cleared his throat and continued, slightly nervous at what he might hear.

"After all these years, I'm finally -" He stopped again, this time _positive_ there was something drastically different in his voice. Why was he suddenly pronouncing things differently? What he had intended to pronounce as "after all" turned out to sound more like, "awfter awll." Along with that, Ryou _still_ didn't appear to hear him and was now looking at a strange piece of soft, thin stone imprinted with colors Bakura had only ever seen in the sunset along with a text that didn't make sense to him. There were, however, numbers that Bakura recognized; 1000. He wondered vaguely what they meant but was too distracted with his voice to really think about it.

"Awfter awll the – awfter awll – _after all_," Bakura stuttered, finally regaining proper pronunciation with extreme difficulty. "After awll – _all_ – these yeahs – no, _years_ – I'm finally free. Now I cahn – _can_ – f-find the phahr-pharaoh and finish what I _started_. You will suhrve – _serve­_ – your perpose ­no, _purpose_ – and... and…" Bakura faltered and shut down completely. "What is wrong with me?" he spat in rage, disgusted to hear his new voice mouth those words as well. "What is this _annoying_ sound I keep speaking with?" He growled in frustration. At this rate, nobody would _ever_ understand what he wanted to say! He sounded ridiculous; not to mention, less evil than he would like to have been.

"Why can't I speak right?" he demanded to no one in particular with the same, strange voice since it was clear that his vessel could not hear him. Was that why Ryou couldn't hear? Was it something about his new voice? Bakura fumed. He had to get rid of this voice or else he would never be able to speak to his hikari. He had to start practicing proper speech; for himself and for Ryou. And so he began, not knowing that he would make little progress and eventually give up and accept his new voice.

Bakura didn't know – and wouldn't for quite some time – why his voice had suddenly changed.

He didn't know he had taken after Ryou more than he had expected.

He didn't know that he was British.

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**Author's Note:** I don't know where the idea came from, but I thought it would be funny to write about Bakura's reaction to getting a British accent since he obviously didn't have one in Egypt. The "thin stone" he described was the Duel Monsters card Ryou received along with the ring. He can't hear Bakura because in the manga, he only started to hear him after he touched Yugi's puzzle. I know he didn't go to their school in this point in time, but I gave him the school uniform anyway for simplicity.

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_Written by Amaya_


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